With roots in Al Merrick’s trusted and proven high-performance shortboard designs, the Channel Islands Fever surfboard can still handle more average conditions.
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Looking for Channel Islands Surfboards in Australia? Talk to the good people at Onboard Industries

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By Jay Recinto of Warm Winds Surf Shop
With the sustainable surf movement gaining steam, we can take this chance to make a difference – a difference that can do wonders for the sport of surfing that we love and for Mother Nature as

Minuses
– Flat rocker confines this board to flat faced waves…taking steep drops is a challenge
– The carbon strip looks cool but, in my opinion, very few surfers will notice it in the surf so much as they will notice the extra hit to their wallets
– It’s a ‘small wave board’ but I feel the Dropped Swallow works best in the shoulder to head high range

Benny RidesThe JS Dropped Swallow surfboard at 6’3 x 21 3/8 x 2 3/4 @ 38.0L’s of volume. Right in Benny’s volume sweet spot. See the full standard JS Dropped Swallow dimensions with volumes at the bottom of this page.

Best Wave TypeShoulder to head high, flatter faced beach breaks – average conditions.

Haydenshapes Hypto Krypto surfboard review: ripping small to medium size wave shape. A fish look and feel up front, all business in the tail

JS Dropped Swallow Surfboard Review

Video Summary

Welcome to Benny’s Boardroom! I buy surfboards, I ride those surfboards and then I review the surfboards here at CompareSurfboards.com so, hopefully you don’t make a bad decision when you go to buy your next board. Today, we are going to talk about the Dropped Swallow, by JS or Jason Stevenson, a shaper from the Gold Coast of Australia. JS surfboards are really popular where I live in Australia and I’ve had a lot of great JS surfboards. I have had a few that I didn’t care for as much but, for the most part, JS turns out some great shapes that seem to work well for a lot of surfers.

JS Dropped Swallow Surfboard

Back to the Dropped Swallow. Now, this is a board that is intended for smaller, more average waves; the waist to shoulder high to maybe a bit overhead sized waves and generally stuff that is less than good. So not really what you are after if you’re heading to surf lined up perfect reef breaks and point breaks. This is for the average conditions that a lot of surfers are forced to surf most of the time. To achieve that style of board, JS has a relatively flat rocker. There is a little bit of curvature in the nose and in the tail. There is a little bit of a kick in the nose and the tail but relatively flat throughout. Foam carries to the rails and these are nice, medium to full rails that are good for stability, good for cutting through mush and for making it around sections.

There are a couple of things about this board that stand out to me. As you can see, you’ve got this carbon strip running from tip to tail. I, personally, don’t know what this does. I know that it is intended to make the board livelier and more flexible. I don’t know if I can tell the difference with that carbon strip being there but I like the way it looks. I think it looks cool. The most defining feature about this surfboard is the outline, which is a wider, fuller outline for smaller waves. Wide nose coming into a wider body and then coming into this little hip at the back, we have this hybrid square swallow tail. This almost reminds me of the tail on the Channel Islands Weirdo Ripper. The function of this square/swallow tail is to give you the drive of a square tail but also the ease of transition that you get from a swallow tail so when you’re surfing smaller waves and you don’t have as much push behind you, the swallow tail helps you to transition more easily in the smaller waves.

JS Dropped Swallow Surfboard Hybrid Square / Swallow Tail

That’s a cool, little design feature and this is a cool, little small to medium size wave, average summer wave surfboard. Really fun for that type of surf. I’ve surfed it a few times and so far I’m enjoying the way it feels.

If you’ve had a go on the Dropped Swallow by JS surfboards, please let me know what you think and thank you very much for watching the show.

My name is Benny and I have a surfboard problem.
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I have a 5’10 JS drop swallow, I am 83kgs and above average surfer but no Kelly Slater. This is a great board up to 3-4ft. It catches waves super easy, surfs in the pocket well but if you want to drive out to get around a north east slop foam ball no worries at all. I have had it in really punchy beach breaks and fat slow waves and it handles all conditions. However if the wave size go’s above 4ft I find it just looses control all of a sudden. Highly recommend it. Enjoy.

Something about BENNY

Hi, I’m Benny! Welcome to Compare Surfboards and welcome to the family!

Like many of you, I'm a regular, everyday surfer but I LOVE IT! Struggling to find real, experienced based info. about surfboards and surf products, I started Compare Surfboards to help cut through the marketing hype and pro-surfer-wannabe-aspiration that leads many of us to buy and ride the wrong equipment. We ride them, we review them, we help you understand how they will actually work for you in the water. And, we want your voice in the conversation.

Join us on our journey of riding and reporting on the best boards we can find from the best shapers (both big name and underground) on the planet.